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WGC AMERICAN EXPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 8, 2005

Sergio Garcia

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Sergio Garcia, thanks for joining us. Right now you're two shots behind John Daly, currently the leader on the golf course. Maybe start with some opening comments on a good day for you.

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, it was a great day. I played very solid all day, made a couple nice par putts on the front nine, although I couldn't really get anything going. Then I stayed patient.

I knew that I could that I had some birdies in me on the back nine. I finally got it going a little bit, just a shame that the last ones didn't drop, but that's the way it goes.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You've had four Top 10s in five starts at the American Express Championships. Do you feel like you're ready to step into the winner's circle here?

SERGIO GARCIA: I hope so. We'll see tomorrow. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I think I've been playing very well all year. Finally I'm starting to play a little bit better, so I think it's going to be fun. We'll see what kind of day we have. I'd love it if it could be a day kind of like today, a bit breezy so it makes it tougher, so we'll see.

Q. Why would you like the conditions to be like that?

SERGIO GARCIA: I've always liked these kind of conditions. The tougher, the more I enjoy it. You have to rely on your ball striking, and that's something that I've always felt comfortable doing. And now that I'm playing better, I know that I can still even on some of the holes that are playing really tough, so you're going to have to make some par putts, but I feel like I can do it now.

I was able to do that today, and we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Q. It appears you'll be paired with Daly. I don't know who else, at the final round. But Daly is a huge crowd favorite here with Montgomerie today, like everything Daly does the crowd is erupting and everything Montgomerie does, nobody really seems to care. Will that bother you, to be in an environment like that?

SERGIO GARCIA: Not at all. I think that the crowds know what to do, and there's no doubt that John is a crowd favorite, but I don't care. I know what I have to do and I know when I hit a good shot and a bad shot, I don't need the crowd to tell me. But I also know that these crowds are good crowds and they're respectful and they know what they're doing. It's going to be fun. We'll see what happens. There's still players out there, so I'm looking forward to it.

Q. How did that last putt stay out? It looked like it defied gravity.

SERGIO GARCIA: It lipped out, I guess. I don't know, I'm still it's just one of those things, it didn't want to go in. I thought I hit the best putt I could hit, and it looked like it had to go in. It was a left to right putt and the wind was off the left, so it had to just curl in there, and unfortunately it just didn't want to.

Q. You've played 18 so well. So many people are struggling with it. We just saw Tiger drive one over here in the street basically, but guys are hitting it into the lake and all over the place. If it comes down to 18 and it's a tight match, are you confident that you can birdie it or par it?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I've played 18 well every day, hit 3 wood the first two days off the tee when it was a little less windy. I kept it in the fairway nicely. Then today I felt like it was perfect to just hit a high drive, just left of those bunkers. I knew that it was probably going to run out and get on that right rough, but I knew that hitting something like a 9, 8 or a wedge that I was going to be hitting, I could get it to the green from there.

I mean, that's the way you play 18 today. You try to make a 4 there. I hit a good drive and it just went into the first cut, and I hit a really good shot, actually looked like it was a bit closer, and a good putt and made a good 4, so I'm not disappointed with that.

Q. A lot of your wins in tournament weeks have been on courses that are set up tough like Westchester where the scores aren't super low, Colonial. What is it about your game where the tougher the course, it seems to bring out the best in your golf?

SERGIO GARCIA: As I've always said, I feel like pretty much most of my times I can rely on my ball striking. I feel like I'm a good driver of the ball. I'm not afraid of hitting driver when I have to. You know, I usually hit a lot of greens. Those are the things I've been doing well for quite a while. And since my swing changes, they've been even better than they used to be. Finally, my putting is supposed to be where it should be, and that's what's making the difference. I think that the game has been there for quite a while, and it's just a pity that I haven't made a bit more putts.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Sergio Garcia, thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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